Question: how hard is it to code in AI that act like players?I felt it was a good idea to make this a topic instead of a simple comment.Anyway, I'm coming from the Xbox game which never had an offline mode. So because of that the game world feels so empty. By that I mean that I'm missing randomness and aggressiveness that human players brought to the lobbies and free missions (that there respect order). Even just adding an AI that wanders from zone to zone would be a marked improvement compared to the ghost towns they are now.

i agree, the lobbies need a function, maybe add a few npcs wandering around that give hints on some of the more advanced content, or custom content, and then some that just have random awkward scripts, i really have no idea what he's capable of doing, but it would liven up the exploring of the worlds, as it is now, they're just mission counters and shops anyways

Molten wrote:i agree, the lobbies need a function, maybe add a few npcs wandering around that give hints on some of the more advanced content, or custom content, and then some that just have random awkward scripts, i really have no idea what he's capable of doing, but it would liven up the exploring of the worlds, as it is now, they're just mission counters and shops anyways

Lobby NPCs are... I'd like to put more in, but that's likely to be an annoying tedium thing. Maybe in a later version. I do agree that the lobbies are pretty empty offline.

Basically, the state of the game is as follows:There are two types of NPCs, referred internally as APCs (automated player characters, presumably--these are your partner characters, characters who have cut-in chat/radio transmissions/chat bubbles with their names on them, and generally anyone whose mouth moves when they talk) and NPCs (these are your lobby NPCs, although they're also used in various mission cutscenes--"the Vol Bros collapsed next to each other" is the most obvious one).There is a fixed list of NPC appearances, they're prebuilt models. You cannot add new ones without knowing how the model format works, they do not use clothes/parts (this list includes Rappy, Koltova, computer terminals, Magashi with wings, etc).APCs can have custom appearances, because they effectively use player data for that (hence why you can for instance copy Ethan onto your character if you use cheatengine). They are, however, restricted to 5 at a time.NPCs can have a "talk" command built-in. They're map objects (fairly equivalent to buttons, boxes, trees, etc) and can be set to naturally wander, but their "talk" effect is script-controlled.APCs have to be added via script commands. While they're not required to follow the player, if they don't follow the player, everything they do has to be done via script--on the flip side, if you want them to talk, you'll have to add a map object solely for that, and then control the actual dialogue via scripting. They also may or may not function in the lobby, for the same reason that invited partner characters don't.

The short form of this all is, you can add more lobby NPCs. You can even make it seem somewhat like they're wandering around (e.g each time you go to the lobby, Pippi Vol (for instance) will randomly choose whether to be on Moatoob, the Colony, etc). You're likely to be restricted to only the existing NPCs (there are a bunch of them, fortunately--there was a list on the old forum, but all the pictures died), and they won't fight alongside you. It'll be super-tedious to set up more than a few of them.